Extirpon (disambiguation)
}} Eric Stanley Opendi / Extirpon is a superpowered anti-hero in the Gerosha multiverse of Dozerfleet Comics. He is a Marlquaanite, whose power is that he can alter reality and materialize new things ex nihlo whenever he is outraged by the pride and hubris of his enemies. This allows him to become an vigilante anti-hero all around the world. Easily viewed as a terrorist by US authorities, he has to remain constantly on the move. Character bio Early life Eric began his life in Covington, Kentucky; born in 1979. His whole life, he has witnessed the injustice, cruelty, and general jackassery of his fellow man. He'd seen unspeakably cruel criminals pull off stunts arrogantly, knowing full well that the law would never get to them in time. The Hebbleskin Gang and their ilk had poisoned the waters further. Even with Phexos, the Phaelites could not keep up. The world was simply too evil. The pride of evildoers was excessive, their stubbornness absolute, their hearts incorrigible. Evil had no fear, and a few of them feared no consequences. But all Eric could do was trudge along his meaningless life, waiting patiently for a chance to come to see justice served; looking for mind-numbing distractions to quench the anger that had built up inside him for years. Doing everything he could to live as debt-free as possible, he actually avoided going to college. He worked mostly small jobs, moving at the age of 26 to an apartment in St. Louis. His father, Terry Opendi, died of cancer. His mother joined in an underground resistance to the Hebbleskin Gang, and disappeared in 2007 while investigating leads into a hairstylist in northern Michigan who may have been a Hebbleskin spy. Having no other family, Eric found himself growing increasingly cut off from society. He began trying to blend in with his new world, even developing a love interest in the form of the blond Vanna Kerling. Given her on-again and off-again excuses for not always keeping dates with him, he was suspicious of her motives. The Marlquaan storm In September of 2012, Dereck Johnson of Marl-Q Industries tried to wield the Marlquaan for himself. His efforts to do so created not only his monstrous alter-ego Eqquibus; but his rival the Gray Champion as well. The Marlquaan storm that resulted didn't just bond the Marlquaan to those two. It spread around the world, creating Marlquaanites the globe over. Eric was fed up with his neighbor at the apartment building, who was always abusing his girlfriend physically. The evening following Eqquibus' accidental explosion, the Marlquaan made its way to Eric's apartment in St. Louis. Eric awoke, feeling energized in a way he'd never felt before. He could also reach out his hand, and sense himself getting stronger as the neighbor tortured his girlfriend outside the door. The more a jerk the Fred Rillins was to Mary Halibet, the stronger Eric felt; until he could phase through the door undetected, and turn invisible. When Fred finally tried to push Mary down the stairs to her death, she paused in midair. Fred had no idea what to make of it. Next he knew, the giant fan downstairs was without a front guard for its blades. An invisible force lifted him up in the air, and forced his arms forward. Downward he flew, his arms destined for the high-speed fan that would mutilate them. He heard a voice he didn't recognize echo through the hallway: "THAT'S THE LAST TIME YOU'LL EVER PUSH ANYONE EVER AGAIN!!!" Eric fled the apartment after Fred's forearms had been thoroughly sliced off. He didn't want anyone to know who'd done it. He was initially horrified, realizing what kind of monster had been inside him the entire time. Career as Extirpon Main article: Extirpon (story) Eric begins to go into denial that the events of that evening were real, withdrawing even more from socialization. However, Vanna calls him up and convinces him to come over to her place. He confesses to her that something happened that evening, and that he overheard it all. He claims he chose to flee like a coward rather than call the cops, using a half-truth to cover for himself. He admits that he somewhat enjoyed hearing that someone did that to Fred, given his views on how Fred treated Mary. While he is holding his head down in self-pity, Vanna looks away and notices that her hand is glowing as Eric talks about his anger. Vanna realizes after Eric leaves that she can clean her own house by simply wishing it, with what appears to be a "battery" that is charged by absorbing Eric's anger. Deciding she is a parasite, she starts going over her notes to find a parasite name that fits her: Nematode. Meanwhile, a continued crime wave continues to irritate and tempt Eric, until he realizes that adopting a new identity is all he can do. He manages to break up a major terror attack on a bridge, discovering its connections to a drug ring operating in town. He goes straight to the drug house, which turns out to be an apartment. After killing every minion there, he singles out the ringleader for torture. He learns that the ringleader killed a girl who was important to Eric much earlier in his life: his middle school crush Callie Morris. He begins reading ringleader Jared Rinehar's memories, then disposes of him in a very similar manner to how Jared disposed of Callie. He soon tracks down a supposedly "untouchable" connection of Jared's. He learns of that connection's whereabouts, allows the connection to boast of being untouchable, and then hears the connection say: "Not only will I get away; but all evidence has already been...well, extirpated!" The man, Marshall Lawrence, soon finds himself standing up in the train car, covered in burrs. Honey begins oozing out of the burrs, and a swarm of angry bees flies into the car at seemingly impossible speed as they shatter a glass window to get in. Eric reveals himself, frees all the women aboard that were being sex-trafficked, and then replies to Marshall: "You're about to be...extirpated!" All the records that Marshall bragged would be either sealed or destroyed instead end up in the hands of various law enforcement, allowing a case to be pieced together. Eric orders the bees to kill Marshall, and they begin crawling inside him and ripping him apart from the inside out. Eric disappears just as security arrives. Learning how his power feeds on negative emotion, Eric begins wondering if it is even worthwhile to return to his old life. He finally elects not to, liquidating his assets and deciding to wander the Earth endlessly as the ultra-super-powered vigilante known only as "Extirpon." He is initially successful at taking out a variety of villains, often in really extreme ways. His initial major battle is in trying to defeat Nematode, who proves a smarter adversary than he thought possible. Unlocking the Positive Battery Main article: Extirpon 2 Extirpon begins to mourn one down side to his power: the inability to heal anyone out of sheer goodwill. His inability to grasp with the fact that he is solely destructive begins to drive him crazy. However, he ends up facing new challenges that require him to unlock his "Positive Battery." He begins to learn that the Positive Battery transforms him into a constructive protector, far from the angry monster he normally turns into. Development See also Category: Extirpon characters Category: Dozerfleet superheroes